pls recommend a good spread betting firm for newbie

[peakoil]

Whatever you do, do *not* open only one spread betting account. Definitely mix your business around several spread betters.

All the spread bet companies love losers, but when you are consistently winning over several months, they can do certain things to make it extremely difficult to continue winning... Trust me when I say: That's why you must mix your business up between several companies from the offset. I did not like IGindex btw, and have mixed feelings about CMC over the long term, albeit in recent months I've had a reasonably good experiences with them. Maiden22 may well have good reason to dislike Finspreads too. The capital spreads A/C opening offer of £100 certainly looks interesting; and whereas I'd agree that one should not choose a spread bet company only because of its opening offer, there is still far more to CS than its opening offer - besides there are also many satisfied customers here, so it really is not such a bad offer at all.

Anyway, good luck in your choices, and do keep us updated with your experiences

 

[montmorencyt2w]

I opened an account with Tradefair a short while back after someone's recommendation here. They are in the same group as Capital Spreads, but personally I prefer Tradefair's platform. They offer £75 when you open an account, with certain conditions (you have to fund it and make 2 non-share trades). As far as I know, the money is yours to keep.

I have also used IG, Shorts and Longs, Finspreads, Capital Spreads and Interactive Investor. Still have accounts with them all, but not in use at the moment.
Almost certainly going to give IG another go before too long. My favourite platform so far.


BTW, anyone else wonder if these regular questions about SB companies are plants by the SB companies themselves....?

 

[peakoil]

I opened an account with Tradefair a short while back after someone's recommendation here. They are in the same group as Capital Spreads, but personally I prefer Tradefair's platform. They offer £75 when you open an account, with certain conditions (you have to fund it and make 2 non-share trades). As far as I know, the money is yours to keep.

I

Pardon me, but you've just tickled my interest in Tradefair, and if you've got a mo, just wondering how you like them please - i.e., fast fills - even at volatile times? platform reliability? Any slippage? Auto execution always? Good dispute resolution?

Also, my eagle eye noticed that under the terms of their opening offer it says on one of their webpages "Please contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 207 456 7071 or via email [email protected] to get the bonus applied before the 31st January 2010."

But on another of their webapges (on the tighter speads link) it says: "Please contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 207 456 7071 or via email [email protected] to get the bonus applied before the 15th December 2009."

Hmmmm, I trust that they will still apply their offer to new accounts before the 31st of Jan despite the current contradiction on their site's pages.

 

[montmorencyt2w]

Pardon me, but you've just tickled my interest in Tradefair, and if you've got a mo, just wondering how you like them please - i.e., fast fills - even at volatile times? platform reliability? Any slippage? Auto execution always?

Only problem I've had was in the throes of NFP day. Assume most places are like that.
I couldn't close a winning position, and when I could, I wasn't winning by as much, but I suspect it could have gone either way.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Auto execution always?"

Good dispute resolution?

It hasn't come to that so far!

Also, my eagle eye noticed that under the terms of their opening offer it says on one of their webpages "Please contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 207 456 7071 or via email [email protected] to get the bonus applied before the 31st January 2010."

But on another of their webapges (on the tighter speads link) it says: "Please contact our customer service team on +44 (0) 207 456 7071 or via email [email protected] to get the bonus applied before the 15th December 2009."

Hmmmm, I trust that they will still apply their offer to new accounts before the 31st of Jan despite the current contradiction on their site's pages.

I'd think it's probably ok. Just a bit of sloppy webbery.

Basically I'd say to give them a try.

 

[frozeng]

Does anyone have any recommendations for spread betting firms with the lowest permanent stake sizes?

I just got a letter today to say that PartyMarkets is moving from CityIndex to London Capital and looking at the new website this means a move from 10p/pip to £1/pip for shares.

I already have a CityIndex account which does 50p/pip and I understand I could get an IGIndex account to 50p semi-permanently with TradeSense but I was finding 10p to be a good amount while I am starting out and I can't seem to find anyone else who offers this.

 

[blancspa]

Does anyone have any recommendations for spread betting firms with the lowest permanent stake sizes?

I just got a letter today to say that PartyMarkets is moving from CityIndex to London Capital and looking at the new website this means a move from 10p/pip to £1/pip for shares.

I already have a CityIndex account which does 50p/pip and I understand I could get an IGIndex account to 50p semi-permanently with TradeSense but I was finding 10p to be a good amount while I am starting out and I can't seem to find anyone else who offers this.

Alpari

 

[Tenapenny]

Does anyone have any recommendations for spread betting firms with the lowest permanent stake sizes?

I just got a letter today to say that PartyMarkets is moving from CityIndex to London Capital and looking at the new website this means a move from 10p/pip to £1/pip for shares.

I already have a CityIndex account which does 50p/pip and I understand I could get an IGIndex account to 50p semi-permanently with TradeSense but I was finding 10p to be a good amount while I am starting out and I can't seem to find anyone else who offers this.

Try IG Index. You can start at 10p/pip and ask them to keep it like that if and when they change it. One of my accounts there has never been changed from 10p/pip so I use it for testing.

 

[frozeng]

Alpari

I was looking to stick to shares rather than Forex for the time being but good to have a recommendation if i want to start out.

Try IG Index. You can start at 10p/pip and ask them to keep it like that if and when they change it. One of my accounts there has never been changed from 10p/pip so I use it for testing.

Thanks, thats great to know - I had only ever seen people say that they had got it stopped permanently at 50p/pip rather than 10p/pip. I will open an account as soon as possible as PartyMarkets has given only 10days notice - I'm just glad i didn't have longish term positions open.

 

[steve_mcfc]

Thanks, thats great to know - I had only ever seen people say that they had got it stopped permanently at 50p/pip rather than 10p/pip. I will open an account as soon as possible as PartyMarkets has given only 10days notice - I'm just glad i didn't have longish term positions open.

Finspreads has an introductory offer that lets you trade equities at 10p/point for the first 8 weeks after you join:

http://www.finspreads.com/learn_to_spread_bet/trading_academy_course.aspx

Then it goes up to 50p/point permanently.